By Ishika Muchhal

California Institute of the Arts alum Ryan Bancroft (Music BFA 2011, MFA 2013) conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, with Hélène Grimaud on the piano. The show titled Elgar and Mozart featured Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

A Los Angeles native, Bancroft returns to his hometown after receiving much international acclaim. After studying trumpet, harp, flute, cello, and Ghanaian music and dance at CalArts, he went to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for his MMus in orchestral conducting. Bancroft furthered his conducting studies at the Nationale Master Orkestdirectie in the Netherlands.

In 2018, he won first prize and audience prize at Copenhagen’s Malko Competition for Young Conductors. Since 2021, Bancroft has played trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and has been the principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. After being invited to Finland to be the Artist in Association with the Tapiola Sinfonietta, he was named chief conductor designate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his debut there conducting the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

As a conductor, Bancroft has worked with several orchestras in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, France, and Italy. In North America, he has worked with orchestras in Toronto, Maryland, Texas, and Minnesota. Most recently, Bancroft made his debut at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, the Royal Festival Hall in the UK, and the Concertgebouw in the Netherlands.

In a feature for The Pool, CalArts’ alumni magazine, Bancroft spoke to how influential CalArts has been for him as an artist. It was the only school he applied to because of its reputation and faculty like Edward Carroll, a factor that made him pursue his master’s degree there as well.

At the time he noted: “CalArts became the single most pivotal institution I have ever been a part of as it shaped me as a human.”